Steve Allen ep The Diamonds


This movie is part of the collection: Classic TV

Audio/Visual: sound, color
Keywords: Steve Allen; Classic TV

Creative Commons license: Public Domain

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Reviewer: DesiluTrek - - January 6, 2011
Subject: Sheer brilliance
Steve Allen was and remains one of the greatest TV talents! This rivals Ernie Kovacs for early TV ingenuity and hilarity.

If only more had been saved ... anyone in possession of more public domain Steve Allen, please upload it! Many thanks in advance!

Reviewer: robertsradio - - May 29, 2009
Subject: A nice discovery
I have seen old Steve Allen programs at The Museum of Broadcast Communications in Chicago. Steve donated quite a few of his programs to the museum in the early 90's.
It's too bad the last part of this show is missing but it's still a treasure considering many shows from this period are lost.

Reviewer: Tenor madman - - April 9, 2009
Subject: I laughed out loud!
My parents hadn't even met when this aired, so, needless to say, I hadn't had the opportunity to see this before. I'm so glad that someone found and uploaded this delightful kinescope. Was this show always this much fun?

On this clip you'll see Steve, of course, a brief shot of his lovely wife Jayne, his mother, Belle Montrose (who is very funny!), Louis Nye, Jerry Lewis, Xavier Cugat, Abbe Lane, Pat Carroll, Erin O'Brien, The Diamonds, and his announcer, Gene Rayburn, who later was the host of the Match Game.

The comedy bits are fresh and funny. Steve masterfully draws the audience in and their laughter adds to the punch. The atmosphere here seems to crackle with excitement as though one doesn't know what Steve will hit them with next.

There are a quite a lot of commercials. They really bring you into the 1950's in a unique way.

Unfortunately, the end is missing, but the forty minutes that remain are priceless.

Of all the things that I've reviewed here, this had some of the funniest moments. I would place this at the top of my list of things to see here!

DO NOT MISS THIS CLIP!!

TM

Reviewer: rq52 - - May 11, 2008
Subject: the precursor to the Tonight Show
I'm not sure, but I think this was Mr. Weaver's idea (then pres. of Nightime programming at NBC)
to use this show as a basis for the Tonight Show.
I could be wrong.